Okay, these aren’t really paint secrets, but my fiancée and I were waiting around at Home Depot, getting some paint mixed, chatting with the paint guy and came away with some “secrets” (yeah, that’s in quotes, these probably aren’t secrets to you but I was surprised to learn them).

Behr is Home Depot’s brand of paint and it’s actually pretty good quality paint but it sells terribly when it’s not on sale (at least at the local store I was at), which happens once every season. Those sales usually coincide with a major long weekend in that season, like Labor Day and Memorial Day. Expect to see Behr paint sales this upcoming long weekend.

Most people paint during those long weekends, probably because they either have a lot of time or because they plan on having some company over. If I were to guess, I wouldn’t have picked these long weekends… it’s enough stress planning for people coming over for Thanksgiving or the holidays, why add to that by painting?

Behr on sale isn’t the cheapest paint despite being a Home Depot brand.

When you request a color, you bring up a can of the brand’s base white and HD mixes in the dyes for you – all those dyes are all Behr dyes. In fact, you could, if you wanted to, bring a Behr base white and request a color from Sherwin Williams but the color won’t come out perfectly because every brand’s white is slightly different.

The guy, who wasn’t one of those overachievers looking to push corporate speak, said that it was surprising how white Behr paint was, in fact he mentioned how Sherwin Williams’ white actually looks gray next to the whiteness of Behr paint. What this also means is that if you tried to take the formulations designed for Sherwin Williams and put them in Behr paint, to pay Behr prices, you would get colors that would be lighter… but otherwise be “fine.”

“[...] use this tip: ask to open an “account” This just involves giving your personal info (fake it if you want). Then they’ll give you the commercial discount every time – 10% or 15% depending on the associates mood. Just make sure as they’re ringing you in to mention that you have an account with them.” (Great tip courtesy of Kelly, Thanks!)